‘I’m more motivated now’ – Nasty fracture doesn’t derail Barry McClements’ Paris quest

Born with a fibular hemimelia, which meant his right leg was amputated above the knee when he was just ten months old, he uses a prosthetic limb.

And when it came undone one evening last September while out walking with friends, it sent him tumbling downwards.

His full weight came down on his exposed femur and cracked it. Maybe ten months out from Paris, his chances of travelling hung by a thread.

“My artificial leg came off, it just wasn’t fitted correctly,” explains the Co Down man, one of six swimmers named on the Irish Paralympic team in Dublin yesterday.

“It’s not supposed to come off. Maybe it was inevitable that it would happen sometime as there’s two parts to it [above and below the knee], one part just came off.

“I was walking down a steep hill and I think the momentum did it. My femur was fractured just at the bottom. Out from middle of September to middle of November. I was sort on and off crutches to the middle of December. I was with two friends at the time who put their arms around me [to get me home].”

From there all he could do was wait and hope. However, the initial prognosis was not good.

“The doctors hadn’t experienced anything like that with a stump. Some of them were saying you might not be back until April and I was crying and stuff, obviously. But it healed way faster than they expected and didn’t need any surgery. They were [initially] talking about screws and that.

“I never really stayed out of the pool. The doctors were like, ‘Stay out of the pool’ but I said, ‘I can’t!’

“I was just doing 15 minutes, just my arms really, trying not to move my legs….and that was up to the end of November. It wasn’t until the end of December that I could start [really] building up.”

A 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly swimmer, he’d already met the qualifying standard for Paris at that stage. However, he knew fitness might be an issue having missed an important training block.

But in a remarkable performance, he swam into bronze in the 100m butterfly S9 final at the European Championships in Madeira last month.

And now the 22-year-old heads into his second Paralympic games in August with much bigger ambitions than when he went to Tokyo three years ago.

“Tokyo for me was about making the finals. Getting into those big finals and experiencing it. I did it in the 100m backstroke in Tokyo and I really wanted it in the 100m fly as well and I was left disappointed that I didn’t go best time .... but again, my training wasn’t very good in the lead-up to that – that was on me, I didn’t show up when I should have shown up and things like that.

“Again, the immaturity that came along with it.

“Now I’ve put the work in and I’m going to continue to put the work in.”

Having nearly lost the chance to compete in Paris with his fall, McClements is determined to take his opportunity with both hands.

“I think I’m just more mature [than Tokyo]. I’ve got an European medal to my name, a Commonwealth medal. I’m more motivated really. When I was 19 I was doing it more for enjoyment.

“At the time I thought it was more enjoyable but in my head I was stressed more. Now I focus more on enjoying it and having the goals in the back of my head. Whereas when I was younger I was more stressed about the goals rather than enjoying it.

“But at this age you can enjoy it while going through the process. Whatever comes with that is a bonus.”